A Mother
by spacEnigma83
Summary: I wrote this because there was a lack of something in the most recent Season 3 Episode "Good Form". I read beforehand that Emma and Mary Margaret would have a disagreement and what we got was not what I had hoped for. I was looking for something a little more angsty... so I wrote this. It's kind of short.


**I wrote this because there was a lack of something in the most recent Season 3 Episode "Good Form". I read beforehand that Emma and Mary Margaret would have a disagreement and what we got was not what I had hoped for. I was looking for something a little more angsty... so I wrote this. Regina gets involved in this argument as well, can't help that. She's there so she sort of has to be involved somehow. It's an argument about mothers.**

**A Mother**

Hook and David head off in to the dark jungle to gather more vine for the women to use as rope for a net rigging, a trap. The intention is to capture one of Peter Pan's lost boys and convince him to relay a message to young Henry, a message to serve as hope for the boy.

Mary Margaret smiles and clears her throat in an attempt to hold in her amusement as she watches the expressions that wash over Emma's face as she looks on after Hook in his departure. Of course this only gets her a turn of the head in her direction.

"What?" Emma asks in a snap of irritation, her brow instantly crinkling.

"Nothing." Mary Margaret offers with a shrug and a dismissive frown while she tries to contain herself.

Emma rolls her eyes and gets back to work on the rope. "Sure... nothing." Emma repeats in a tone that tells everyone she is not amused.

"It's just... you... well you wear your thoughts all over your face is all." Mary Margaret says simply with a smug grin to herself.

"Do I now?" Emma pushes though she sounds just as irritated as before.

"You seem to have a thing for _bad_ boys." The woman says with a hint of a giggle and a shrug of one shoulder. This not only get's her a scoff from Emma but Regina as well who sits nearby also at work on her own set of vines. "Tell me I'm wrong." The younger brunette challenges.

"You're wrong." Emma says assuredly in what she hope is the final word but Mary Margaret releases that giggle she'd been so keen on suppressing. Emma is then pushed to defend herself once more. "Stop it." She warns in a low voice. "I'm not doing this with you." She grumbles looking back down at the vine she is working with.

"Not... doing what?" Mary Margaret asks truly confused by the sudden warning she has received.

"I'm not doing this... _girl talk_... or whatever this is you're trying to do with me." Emma says with a frown now.

"Oh but you were willing when you didn't know I was your mother." She points out with a frown of her own.

"You're not my..." She starts to say but stops herself and sighs loudly clearly exasperated with this line of conversation. "It's different. You're..." and then she growls because she doesn't know how to say what she wants to say without hurting the woman's feelings.

"Like it or not I am your mother. You're just going to have to get over that fact... but you can still talk to me no matter our relation. You can still tell me things. I mean we were friends before weren't we? You talked to me back then... back before the curse broke." Mary Margaret argues.

"That was..." Emma throws the vines down and gets up to start pacing. "Look... you... you can't expect to just pick up where we left off. Things are different, really... different. You can't just suddenly waltz in and… _be_… my mother." Mary Margaret gapes while Emma simply glares.

The voice that roars out in defense is quite unexpected to the mother and daughter. "Oh so you mean that your... _mother..._" Regina says as she stands to looks over the woman in question, barely resisting the urge to snarl, "That she doesn't have the right to just swoop in and be a part of your life now? That is... what you're suggesting here isn't it?" Regina's eyes widen for emphasis not bothering to wait on a reply. "I mean let's be honest here Emma... you have attempted to do the same with Henry." Her eyes zone in on those of the blonde woman. This was a fight she always loved to pick, the _"Who is Henry's mother"_ fight.

"No... that's not..." Emma shakes her head a bit as she fumbles with her words, thrown off in the heat of this argument. She manages a glance at her mother and glares at Regina. "That's different." She offers as she stands up a bit straighter. She looks down at the ground and then back up at the older woman. "I didn't..." She tries to finish her argument. "With Henry... I didn't want..."

"You didn't _want_ to give him up. You just wanted what was best for him." Mary Margaret points out calmly but doesn't bother looking Emma in the eye as she states this from where she still sits on the log close by. Then she repeats in a whisper, "You didn't want to give up your baby." Emma's response to this is another sigh and a near roll of her eyes.

"You keep saying he's our son... _our _son." Regina repeats with a glare of her own calling the blonde's eyes to her once more. "The truth is I've had him most of his life. What happens here once we save him? You think I'm just going to let you swoop in and take over? You haven't earned the privilege. You may have been the one to bring him in to the world but I was there to raise him up. Unlike the two of you..." Regina says throwing a piercing look at the blonde and brunette respectively. "I have earned the title. I _am_ Henry's mother. You're both here just trying to weasel in on something that you don't deserve!" Quite satisfied with her own words she pulls down at her jacket before she trudges off down the path looking for solace.

Emma stands dumbfounded. It was amazing how even an argument could be hijacked in matter of seconds. Not that she was ready to hash out this sort of conversation with Mary Margaret but it was funny how Regina took over and made it all about her. She watches the woman leave camp before regrettably moving back to sit near her mother who continues to work silently on the vines.

They continue working in this awkward silence until Emma clears her throat and spares a glance at the woman. "Mary Margaret... I... uh..."

"It's alright. You don't have to... explain anything. I'll get over it." She offers in a meek voice.

"We both know it's not alright." Emma says with a frown as she tries to gain some eye contact, she fails.

"No you're right. I'm not your mother. I don't know how to do anything for you. I don't know how to... how to comfort you. I don't know how to..." She shrugs and then she seems a bit angry with herself. "I don't even know how to talk to you without... _trying_ to be your mother. I don't know what happened."

"You lost faith in me." Emma says in a grumble.

"No... that's not true. I have faith in you. I have faith that you... you know what you're doing." She shrugs one shoulder and even she doesn't believe what she is saying anymore.

"Do you?" Emma asks with a wince. "It seems like you are more willing to point out what I'm doing wrong or how I don't know anything. You think I'm incapable of taking care of myself. I've been on my own most of my life. I did fine without..." She doesn't get to finish that thought as there is a rustling of leaves. The noise quickly explained away by the presence of the older brunette who trudges her way back in to camp and gruffly takes her abandoned seat nearby. She bends down to retrieve her own line of vines and gets back to work and the other two remain silent as they do the same.

"I apologize for my outburst." Regina says suddenly. "I didn't mean to meddle in your business. Who am I to say what makes a mother. It's not like I had much of an example." She says casting a sideways glance at the duo.

"Yet you managed to do a wonderful job with Henry." Mary Margaret offers though it is hard to read the emotions she is putting into that statement as she meets eyes with Regina. It's almost as if she can't conceive this to be true. He turned out to be an incredible little boy so full of wonder and hope. "Then again you always seemed to have a way with motherless children." She says and Regina doesn't blink understanding her reference to their time as Step mother and Step daughter.

"Perhaps it was because I could relate." Regina offers with a shrug and a purse of her lips, breaking eye contact and setting to work with those vines once more.

"Whatever the reason..." Emma chimes in as the two women look over at her as she nervously darts her eyes. "I'm glad to see he got what I had hoped for. He's... he turned out better than he would have with me." She says with a shake of her head and just to make sure Regina get's that this is a compliment she offers a slight grin. Regina nods once in silent acknowledgment before the moment is interrupted by another rustling of leaves.

This time it is Hook and David who reappear in the camp with not only more vine for their task of rigging a trap but word of a possible way for them to get off the island once they manage to retrieve Henry. It seemed like this rescue would be coming to fruition but the women would proceed with the trap. They needed to get word to Henry. They needed to give him something to survive for. They needed to give him that hope.

...

...

...


End file.
